Suit filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California accuses MPAA of hiring less than legal consultants

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), along with the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA), have stepped up their attacks against illegal file sharing in the US. One of the web sites being sued by the MPAA, TorrentSpy, has now filed a countersuit because it claims the MPAA hired a hacker to spy on the internal operations of the web site. Valence Media, the company that operates TorrentSpy, claims that the MPAA offered a hacker $15,000 to gather information on the company.

The hacker reportedly stole a spreadsheet that contains income and expenses for dates ranging from January to June 2005. The hacker turned over information that shows the relationship that he had between the MPAA after being told to gather incriminating information against Valence Media.

Representatives from the MPAA deny the accusations pitted against them by TorrentSpy. The trade group also says this is just a "desperate attempt" at covering the overall idea that the site allegedly facilitates piracy. Some analysts believe if the case does go to court, this example of industrial espionage via paid hacker will be one of the most high-profile tech-related lawsuits in years.